A covering apparatus for the bed of a pickup truck, adapted for use with a fifth-wheel type trailer hitch, is known. Such a covering apparatus protects the storage area within the pickup truck's box from theft and the weather. It also creates an improved appearance and reduces air friction, thereby decreasing gasoline consumption.
It is also known to adapt the cover for easy hitching and unhitching by providing a trough between the tailgate and the hole defined in the cover above the fifth-wheel hitch mounted on the truck's bed. During the hitching process, the gooseneck of the trailer travels within the trough. Various trailers have goosenecks having various depths and angles; the difference is particularly noticeable between RV type fifth-wheel trailers and stock type fifth-wheel trailers. Where the trough is too shallow for the gooseneck, the cover is not usable. Where the trough is too deep, valuable space is lost within the truck's box. Known covers have not yet developed structures that will accoodate a gooseneck requiring a deep trough while still preserving space within the truck's box.
A related problem is that due to the need to have deeper and shallower troughs built into the covers, depending on the type of gooseneck, there is a need for tailgates having deeper and shallower notches that correspond to the troughs in the cover. This increases the cost of production.
Another problem seen with covers used with pickups towing fifth-wheel trailers is that the required width of the cover is not consistent between the various pickup truck manufacturers. As a result, the cost of production and inventory is increased.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a cover for a pickup truck bed for use with a fifth-wheel hitch that can accommodate trailer goosenecks that require both deep and shallow troughs, and trucks having wide and narrow boxes having different varying lengths, without loss of storage space or a variety of differently sized covers and tailgates.